Wednesday

I have a couple of Top Ten lists to offer today.

During the now completed political campaign, I found myself spending a lot of time, day and evening, reading the Internet news sites and political blogs to keep up on the latest developments. In retrospect, I think that those efforts were a poor and non-productive use of one of a person's primary assets: time.

Now, what constitutes wasting time can be a debatable point. For a sports enthusiast like myself for instance, I still don't get the deal of playing fantasy sports. (Sorry, 1.1.) But this list is just about me, and where I think that I have thrown away the most time. Not in any order of importance. In relevance sometime during the last 25 years.

1. Watching old, old reruns of Law & Order on cable.
2. Spending anything more than 1/2 hour per day on a crossword puzzle.
3. Surfing the 'net.
4. Reading the third daily newspaper. Maybe the second too.
5. Listening to the talking heads on any business channel. More so if NBC is involved.
6. Sitting in drive-time traffic in Chicago.
7. Attending any all-day insurance license continuing education seminar.
8. Eating lunch by myself rather than with a client or associate.
9. Watching any pre-game, half-time, or post-game NFL, MLB or NBA show.
10. Watching a NASCAR race.
11. Following the Tour de France and other bike races on-line.
12. Reading the comments following any Internet political blog article.

My guess is that the Internet is today's biggest waster of time. Replacing TV from the old days. (Is/was watching The Lone Ranger an act of wasting time?) I have no experience to opine on video games. And I'm not sure where comic books fall on the continuum.

And befitting the conclusion of the elections, my Top Ten things learned from the campaign:

1. I can live without late-night TV.
2. MSM does kind of stand for a network.
3. Hope Floats.
4. Eight Is Enough.
5. It's the economy, stupid.
6. I know what I want. Don't confuse me with the facts.
7. Technology and politics do mix.
8. The tanning of America matters in politics.
9. The GOP: we met the enemy, and he was us.
10. On November 5th, The Sun Also Rises.

I have been struggling this week to adjust to the Circadian Rhythms of the time change. Running my days on the same clock time as last week just hasn't worked as well as normal. My body is just a click off.

Looks like we're back into Fall weather tomorrow. That's OK. November and all.

1 reports that she will be Assistant Varsity Coach for the girls team at her new high school.

I'll catch up with some more here tomorrow.

BCOT